Safety work permit - violation of conditions

 Safety work permits are issued after ensuring that the site conditions are suitable for safe work. Check points are verified and are certified for start of work. However, still sometimes accidents take place indicating that either job hazard analysis is not done properly, conditions are altered during the course of work, workmen are not briefed about hazards and measures to be taken, many times they are not aware of what is written in the permit and simply do the work as they were told or as they can do, lack of supervision, etc.
In a huge manufacturing facility, a number of works will be going on and generally, the supervisor will be monitoring more than one work at any given time. In such a condition, at least, emphasis should be given to training to the persons engaged. All are not of superman category.
But, when earnings are motive, all other aspects take back seat. Many times, procedure for selection of the contractor or agency to do the outsourced work is the culprit. If selection is made without assessing the competency of the person/agency for safe execution of work, without checking the credentials, without giving proper description of the work, then we will get a wrong person in most of the cases.
In some cases, trainees are placed directly on to the job without proper class room training and supervision. This also leads to accidents as they are in the organization to learn, initially in the class room and then to have on the job training under supervision. Sometimes, these trainees even will be manning the shifts, particularly at night times when availability of regular work force is less and may be when nobody watches. Though, this is disastrous, shop floor managers take such decisions without taking the concurrence of higher ups. If seniors also give consent, then it is silly and such persons should be terminated or they should be asked to supervise instead of posting trainees for manning the shifts / works.

ATTENTION ONLY TO PRODUCTION CAN LEAD TO DETENTION.
ATTENTION TO SAFE PRODUCTION WILL SURELY LEAD TO CONGRATULATIONS.

Air receiver blast

There was a blast during the cleaning of gas turbine in a polymers factory that makes cans, jars, etc. It is reported that the the valve of the gas turbine suddenly blew up that caused ripping of roof and fragments caused injury to a woman nearby. As per the news in a local news paper, due to malfunctioning of safety valve on the air receiver, the air receiver exploded. As Monday was holiday for the factory, it is reported that no injuries took place in the factory. It is luck that the person involved in the work is safe though the roof sheets blew off but did not fall on him. It is not known what precautions were taken before taking up the cleaning job, like, i) emptying the vessel and purging with inert gas and then purging with air, ii) positive isolation of all lines leading to and from the tank, iii) checking for presence of flammable concentrations in the tank, iv) checking for oxygen level, v) job hazard analysis, vi) supervision and so on.

As the work was taken up on factory holiday and incident happened, one should be careful when planning such maintenance jobs on holidays it should be ensured that safety work permit is obtained and supervision is provided.